Third Time's Not the Charm

I had to wait until my road trip was over to go see the new Mummy, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I had been spectacularly underwhelmed by the preview, but I do like the first two movies (especially the first one), and I wanted to check it out. So I went to see it.

The movie has gotten ridiculously harsh reviews, and the truth is that this time I tend to agree with the critics. I found this third Mummy barely entertaining, and I think I can pinpoint what failed to impress me.

First of all, the story didn't exactly blow me away. The opening tale of the Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) wasn't compelling at all, and everything that followed was just half-hearted. The interaction between O'Connell and his son was okay, but I missed the O'Connell/Evey dynamic that was so much fun in the previous chapters of the saga. This lack of chemistry might have been due to the fact that Rachel Weisz didn't reprise her role and Maria Bello portrayed the character instead, I don't know. She doesn't do a bad job, but the chemistry just isn't there. Brendan Fraser is funny, but the witty dialogue and hilarious one-liners that were everywhere in the first movie are nowhere to be found. There're some attempts at comedy (mostly by John Hannah), and I even chuckled a couple of times, but the writing was lackluster. Also, and maybe worst of all, the plot seemed to drive the characters' actions on more than one occasion, and that bothered me. Some actions and behavior were clearly motivated because the plot said so, not because it was coming from the characters or flowed from the story. On at least three instances, I found myself thinking "Come on! Why would he ever do that?" The reason was that he did that because the plot demanded it for the story to move forward. Never mind it was stupid or that it didn't make sense. It just had to happen, and apparently the writers couldn't find a less clunky way to do it. A shame.

Some of the action scenes I did like, like the battle in the snow, but most of them left me indifferent. And that is a good way to describe the impression the movie made on me. I might as well have gotten up to get something to drink and then returned to my seat, and I wouldn't have thought I was missing anything important. My advice therefore is that, if you really, really like the first two films, then wait and rent this movie when it comes out on DVD. If, on the other hand, you thought the previous installments were just sort of okay, I think you won't like this movie at all. Your call.